Flight Crystal
Also known as float stones, flight crystals provide additional lift with no penalty to speed or maneuverability. Flight crystals are purpled hued and, depending on how high the ship is depends on the depth of the purple. When they contain no magic, flight crystals are clear and appear similar to quartz. At the maximum height the stone is so dark it almost appears black. They function by infusing them with magical energy. They absorb raw magic and the stone begins to fly. If not contained, the stone itself would float away. When attached to a ship it provides lift and can assist the ship in obtaining heights far higher than are normally allowed. The crystal does not use up the magic. However, it also cannot contain it forever. Because of this it requires a constant stream of magical energy. Normally, flight crystals are powered by a ship's engines. If a flight crystal is to be used, then it requires Power Factors to be used as raw energy. Each flight crystal has a flight value (FV). The FV is calculated by multiplying the ship's size value by the number of altitude band increases. Each altitude band is 250 ft. The cost of the crystal is 500 gp per FV. For example, a ship of medium size has a size of 5. The ship builder wants to increase the flight ceiling by 1,000 ft. This is 4 bands. To determine the FV he multiplies 4 by 5 and gets a flight crystal with a fv of 20. Then he wishes to know the cost of this cystal. He multiplies the FV by 500 and ends up with a cost of 10,000 gp for the flight crystal. A normal ship with an operational ceiling of 500 ft. can now fly at 1,500 ft. Flight crystals can be powered without the use of an engine. This is done in the exact same manner an arcane caster can power an arcane engine. It is perfecetly reasonable to have no engine at all in a ship without a flight crystal. However, it must provide some other means of propulsion such as air ores. The Power Factor required to lift a flight crystal to its maximum capable altitude is equal to its FV. This is the Maximum Flight Value (MFV). Howeer, while this should be the maximum amount the engine can sustain, it is not required to use all of the engines power. Each altitude band being used only consumes its fuel as if the Power Factor being used was equal to the altitude band times the ship size being used. This is the crystal's Powered Flight Value (PFV). Because of the special way the engine must be connected to the crystal, any excess power factors cannot be used for acceleration. For example, with the same crystal being used as before, the ship is a total of 100 tons, but the crystal requires an additional 36 PF. His engines provide 200 Power Factor and the ship has +60 to its acceleration. When flying at maximum height of 1,500 ft, the ship consumes the normal amount of fuel for 200 Power Factor engines. However, if the ship's captain decides to cruise at an altitude of just 1,000 ft., his ship only consumes fuel for a 120 Power Factor engine because he now only has a PFV of 18. If the flight crystal was powered by an engine, and the engine is shut off, either by powering down the engines, or because it was destroyed, the flight crystal maintains its currecet level of magic, and thus its altitude, for one hour. However, because the engine has been shut off and is no longer providing lift, the ship instantly descends 500 ft. and the pilot must make a Piloting check DC: 15 or go out of control. All crew must make reflex saves DC: 15 or fall prone. After one hour, the ship begins to descend at a rate of 100 ft. per round. When it comes into contact with the ground, the ship crashes unless the pilot succeeds at a Ploting check DC: 15 to crash land. This check cannot be made if the ship is out of control. Cost: 500 gp per FV. Benifit: 250 ft per altitude point. Hull Points: '''2 per FV. '''Hardness: 9 Size: 1 ton per 100 FV. 1 Critical hit slot per ton. Catastrophic Failure Result: If the flight crystal is reduced to zero hull points, it is considered to have suffered a catastrophic failure. The energy within the flight crystal is released in a violent explosion. The size of this explosion is 1 ft.. radius per PFV. It does 2d6 hull points in damage per 10 PFV. It also does the same damage in hit points to any creature within the blast radius. Refl DC 15 for half.